How Jonah Hill Became A Hollywood A-Lister Worth $30million.

How Jonah Hill Became A Hollywood A-Lister Worth $30million

Recently Jonah Hill was pictured leaving the gym with a leaner physique, barely recognisable from his breakout roles in buddy-comedy films Superbad and Knocked Up a decade ago.

Over the past few years he has made headlines for his fluctuating weight, as he has been piled on and lost the pounds for his on-screen roles.

His most recent change of appearance saw him losing all the weight he had been required to put on for his role in War Dogs, which had mean gaining nearly three stone for the role as an arms dealer.

At his heaviest, Jonah weighed almost 18 stone.

Credit: Columbia Pictures

He has since lost the weight again, as he prepares for an upcoming role in Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, directed by Gus Van Sant and starring alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Jack Black.

His determination to slim down for roles was part of a conscious effort by Jonah to change his image as a actor and to break the ‘wacky best friend’ typecast his early comedy roles had brought onto him.

His first major dramatic role came in 2011 as he appeared in Moneyball alongside Brad Pitt. His role as Peter Brand, a young Yale grad with an economics degree who is also a student of sabermetrics pioneer Bill James, marked a radical departure from the Judd Apatow stoner comedies he has appeared in previously.

The role earned his first Oscar nomination for the role, in the category of Best Supporting Actor, and established him as a more serious actor.

Jonah at The Wolf of Wall Street premier. Credit: PA Images

It’s reported that during this role Brad Pitt encouraged him to begin develop a more healthy lifestyle in order to shed the pounds and that he began seeing a nutritionist and, the move would also expand the range of role which the now 33-year-old actor would be able to play.

As he entered his late 20s, Jonah claimed that his desire to lose weight and go for less comedic roles had come with age.

“Being healthier came along with maturity,” he told New York magazine in 2011. “And it’s hard, because a lot of times people want you to be the guy you were when they met you.

“I love doing funny movies, but I want to mature, literally, in how I treat myself. I’m not living in a frat house with a bong plastered to the table.

“But all this stuff (body image) is just part of maturing in body and in mind. I just want to be a good man and to make my family proud. And, you know, I want to live a long time.”

Jonah in New York in 2014. Credit: PA Images

Although Jonah continued to play comedy roles, taking a lead in satirical action comedy 21 Jump Street, which earned critical acclaim.

From there he would win his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination staring in Martin Scorsese’s 2013 movie The Wolf of Wall Street, this time starring alongside Leonardo DiCaprio.

For the movie, Jonah Hill was desperate to work with Martin Scorsese that he opted to take a multimillion-dollar cut in order to be cast in the film. Hill opted to agree to SAG’s “minimum wage” for the seven-month shoot, which is around $60,000 before commissions and taxes.

An appreciator of film, who before his career on the silver screen had aspired to be a scriptwriter on the writing teams of The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live and The Larry Sanders Show, Jonah took the pay cut because he wanted to work with the legendary director.

In addition to being a critical success, the film was a huge success at the box office, grossing more than $392 million (£317m) worldwide during its run in cinemas and was Martin Scorsese’s highest-grossing movie to date.

A recent picture of Jonah, after he lost the weight he put on for War Dogs. Credit: MEGA

Although he missed out on an Oscar for the second time, the role lead to him being consider for further drama roles. Following his second Oscar nomination, he told the Guardian in 2014 : “It’s not like I don’t like comedy and don’t like making people laugh – I truly enjoy it.

“But I realised once I got success in that world, it was… well, I love all different kinds of films. I love dramatic films as much as comedic films.

“And so when Superbad came out I made a really conscious effort not to star in another film until it was something that presented some sort of different challenge. The reason is, I won’t get better if I just keep working on things I’ve done already.”

In the same year he was a co-producer on the movie Brüno, and did some writing for Sacha Baron Cohen, who he claims “taught him how to become a better writer.”

Having evolved as an actor and a writer his net worth is now estimated to be around $30million (£24m).

Hill will next star opposite Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara and Jack Black in Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot directed by Gus Van Sant. And we can’t wait to see where his careers goes from there.